A fully integrated 2×2 b/g and 1×2 a-band MIMO WLAN SoC in 45nm CMOS for multi-radio IC

A significant increase in Smartphones and tablets with embedded Wi-Fi demands a low-cost system solution. In this paper the RF core of an 802.11n 2×2 b/g band, 2×1 a-band MIMO WLAN SoC with die area of 3.83mm
²
in 45nm CMOS is described. As shown in Fig. 19.1.1 the SoC has integrated Power Amplifier (PA) for both bands and T/R switch in b/g band, eliminating the need for an expensive external Front-End Module. The LO is synthesized by a two-step DLL-PLL architecture to meet the stringent phase-noise requirements.